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Harvard Study: Biggest Factor in Divorce Is Husband's Employment Status

bloomberg.com

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Re: Harvard Study: Biggest Factor in Divorce Is Husband's Employment Status

#11

Post by antisthenes »

koolba wrote: post #2

> The big factor, Harvard sociology professor Alexandra Killewald found, is the husband's employment status. For the past four decades, she discovered, husbands who aren’t employed full time have a 3.3 percent chance of getting divorced in any given year, compared with 2.5 percent for husbands employed full time. In other words, their marriages are one-third more likely to break up. Interesting. I'd be curious to see…

My interest lies in why is the baseline so high in the first place?

2.5%/y sounds like an unacceptable risk , considering how devastating divorce is for men by design (in the USA, at least)

Re: Harvard Study: Biggest Factor in Divorce Is Husband's Employment Status

#13

Post by sokoloff »

antisthenes wrote: post #11
koolba wrote: post #2

> The big factor, Harvard sociology professor Alexandra Killewald found, is the husband's employment status. For the past four decades, she discovered, husbands who aren’t employed full time have a 3.3 percent chance of getting divorced in any given year, compared with 2.5 percent for husbands employed full time. In other words, their marriages are one-third more likely to break up. Interesting. I'd be curious to see…

My interest lies in why is the baseline so high in the first place? 2.5%/y sounds like an unacceptable risk , considering how devastating divorce is for men by design (in the USA, at least)

An unacceptable risk, compared to what? Never marrying?

Living comes with a 100% chance of dying.

Re: Harvard Study: Biggest Factor in Divorce Is Husband's Employment Status

#14

Post by tamana »

koolba wrote: post #2

> The big factor, Harvard sociology professor Alexandra Killewald found, is the husband's employment status. For the past four decades, she discovered, husbands who aren’t employed full time have a 3.3 percent chance of getting divorced in any given year, compared with 2.5 percent for husbands employed full time. In other words, their marriages are one-third more likely to break up. Interesting. I'd be curious to see…

How does the math go when you compound those rates over 30years?

Re: Harvard Study: Biggest Factor in Divorce Is Husband's Employment Status

#16

Post by tamana »

sokoloff wrote: post #13
antisthenes wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My interest lies in why is the baseline so high in the first place? 2.5%/y sounds like an unacceptable risk , considering how devastating divorce is for men by design (in the USA, at least)

An unacceptable risk, compared to what? Never marrying? Living comes with a 100% chance of dying.

Yes, compared to never marrying, maybe paying child support but not alimony, or compared to getting sterilized.

Re: Harvard Study: Biggest Factor in Divorce Is Husband's Employment Status

#17

Post by mjevans »

skylan_q wrote: post #3

Poor journalism, yet again. Factor implies causal link. It's just a correlation in this case.

I view it as the study went looking for X, and to it's surprise didn't see X, but happened to see statistical significance in Y. However the study did not have the scope to determine why Y occurred.

I think the most likely thing that changed over time is Z: the first wave(s) of feminism began to liberate females from the traditional limitations of roles in society. However the true from of feminism is a recognition and reconstruction based around /all/ gender roles being bad for mental health, emotional health, and positive relations among individuals.

Men haven't had that liberation; a large part of society still believes in specific roles and responsibilities for men that coupled females are (at their option) exempted from. This probably leads to increased stress to both individuals and also an increased risk of negative feedback loops for the situation and everyone involved.

The inherent bias in society is even reflected in the premise of the study. It's tracking a specific type of male/female relationship and a specific correlation of role towards problems. Instead a more balanced study would look at the starting condition, determine what percentage of the population (restricting to males and females alone is OK, but including all sets of couples is better) fits different configurations, and tracking for outcomes as well as associated economic, emotional, mental, and physical health in the related intervals would be a better study design. The study might also have a follow-up for 'marriage failure' cases where isolation of the root causes is performed.

Re: Harvard Study: Biggest Factor in Divorce Is Husband's Employment Status

#19

Post by tlrobinson »

codemanneil wrote: post #4
koolba wrote: post #2

> The big factor, Harvard sociology professor Alexandra Killewald found, is the husband's employment status. For the past four decades, she discovered, husbands who aren’t employed full time have a 3.3 percent chance of getting divorced in any given year, compared with 2.5 percent for husbands employed full time. In other words, their marriages are one-third more likely to break up. Interesting. I'd be curious to see…

Based only on intuition, my guess is no. It seems more likely that husbands not working full time are more likely to have financial instability, which would be a cause of stress on the relationship.

From the second paragraph: "A Harvard University study suggests that neither financial strains [...] is typically the main reason for a split."

Re: Harvard Study: Biggest Factor in Divorce Is Husband's Employment Status

#20

Post by hueving »

seizethecheese wrote: post #8
Retra wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You don't think there's any causal link?

There may be, but it also may be that there is a third factor which makes the husband more likely to be unemployed and also a less valuable mate.

Yeah, if the husband is emotionally unstable that could lead to both things.
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